Want to Shut Conservatives Out of Power for Good? Implement Universal Health Care

the AP pulls out their crystal balls--

If Elected ... How Would a President Obama Govern?

"For all Barack Obama's talk about change, there are signs that in style -- if not substance -- a new White House under Democrat Obama would operate much like the current one under President Bush. ..."

If Elected ... How Would a President McCain Govern?

"A rabble-rouser from his earliest days, John McCain has never been one who likes to be told ''no.'' There's no reason to think a President McCain would be any different. ..."

Washington Post

According to AdGooroo and SpyFu, among the thousands of terms purchased to send people to McCain Web sites are:

· "Hot wife," which linked to a biography of Cindy McCain.

· "Sarah palin pictures," which directed users to official campaign pictures.

· "Chavez" and "castro," which linked to a page advertising McCain's foreign policy.

· "Katrina" "against abortion," "global warming," "environmental pollution" and "gas prices," all tied to policy issues.

Hot wife?

Registration Forms Going to Wrong Addresses

Voters in 37 states may be turned away from the polls because of misinformation on online Web sites, which follow the directions on the United States Election Commission Web site.

Barack Obama's and John McCain's Web sites, as well as Rock the Vote, help users fill out forms which can be printed out and mailed.

They are conveniently addressed to the potential voter's secretary of state, or an equivalent state office. All the potential voter has to do is add a stamp and mail it off.

Problem is, for at least 37 states, it's the wrong address.

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Here we go again.

Democratic voters in at least two Wisconsin communities have received absentee voter forms from the McCain campaign that -- if used -- could cause their votes to be ignored.

Is it a simple error? Or campaign shenanigans and voter fraud? You be the judge.

Keith Heck, a former Racine Unified School Board member who lives in Mount Pleasant, reports receiving a mailing containing two tear-out requests for an absentee ballot. The preprinted request form -- an 11x17 piece of card stock folded over twice for mailing -- is addressed to the clerk in the the village of Caledonia.

Heck says, "I spoke with the Caledonia clerk and learned if we (in Mount Pleasant) used the form and sent it to the pre-printed address they would have to forward it to the right jurisdiction (if they had the time and the people) who would then have to send out the absentee ballot. As the deadline to submit a request is Oct. 30, and the clerks have a deadline of Oct. 31, this bogus form not only gums up and overworks the process to get absentee ballots sent out, it could cause some to not even be mailed."

Inside, were two forms like this. see original post for pic

The election officials Heck spoke to -- Racine County and Caledonia -- said sending the absentee ballot request to the wrong clerk would not jeopardize a voter's registration, but might result in the absentee ballot not getting sent due to overworked personnel, or the possibility of missing the deadline.

Another report comes from Jennifer Jackson, a Kenosha County supervisor. She says a friend in Middleton received similar McCain literature, containing a large post card which was an application for absentee ballot. The return address was wrong. Instead of the Middleton address for her clerk's office , it was a Madison clerk's office address. Had she filled this out and sent it back, "her vote would never have been counted," according to Jackson

The Man Who Called His Wife a "C--t" Cries "Sexism!"

I hope you can forgive me, despite my undeserving nature, for some unspecific and overly personal posting of late. I'm going to try to correct that, and here I'll start.

Resolved: Palin was a hit out of the park sort of choice for McCain and his team.

Why do I say this? I have many reasons, and I'm perversely glad and disturbed by his choice. Lemme share some reasons and links which may help you understand.

Palin in the eyes of one gardeners' community. You'll laugh, cry and hurl as you read it, but hopefully, also learn something of why I was nonspecifically asking recently for less groupthink in PB2.0. Sometimes, I fear we all forget that there are many people in America who think about politics, but so very few who think as we do. This is not the only thread I've read about Palin that is very different from the ones I've read in my usual daily travels.

Stepping back a bit and being imaginative: is Palin a good choice? Here's why I think the answer is "yes."

Both the Obama and McCain campaigns are acutely aware of where this election will be decided, and it is not amongst Liberal voters.

Candidates' Web Sites Get to Know the Voters

Any two people interested in whether Amanda Beard is dating fellow Olympian Michael Phelps, and who clicked on the Boston Herald tidbit that raced around the Web last week, got the same piece of gossip.

Rumored galpal Amanda Beard on Phelps: No Thanks!

What was different was the political ads that appeared -- or didn't -- beside the story.

Readers who had visited Barack Obama's Web site received as many as three Obama ads alongside the gossip. "Help Elect Barack Obama President of the United States" and "Visit the Barack Obama Website," the ads said.

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Is The Honeymoon (Finally) Over?

Campaign case report: What Obama and McCain pledge to do about the health system

McCain would end the employee tax exclusion for soundness security against loss spending, instead offering refundable tax credits to help people buy health insurance.

I can't say it enough, the fate of health care will be determined by the down ballot races.

I've heard this Obama's "fake birth certificate" thing all over the wingnut radio, but was surprised to see an actual real lawsuit has been filed as a civil action in Federal Court. What is surprising is that no one has yet sued Panamanian-born McCain over potentially legitimate reasons regarding his "natural born" status.

The Real John McCain

Via Dizzy Queen at MyDD
McCain's no care health care

Is it just me, or does the female voice in the McCain TV Commercial bear an unfortunate resemblance to a feminine hygiene commercial?

nyceve at California Nurses has a video of McSame's appearance at the Lance Armstrong Cancer Center:

"Allow cooperation among states in the purchase of insurance". This is code speak for the infamous and despicable Enzi Bill, which the Republicans deceptively named the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2005 and had it become law (God forbid), would have thrown even the most modest state health insurance consumer protection laws out the window.

In 2006, Mr. Bush and the U.S. House tried to pass legislation to allow associations to offer health coverage to their small-business members.

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In the spirit of wishing openness and transparency for all our presidential candidates' affairs:

Mc Cain has a bit of a gambling problem -- he doesn't acknowledge that he does gamble, at least to the one group that matters, the IRS. From the Time article:

Murdoch Proclaims Obama 'The Real American Idol'

It seems the UK Sun has a positive article about Obama. Murdoch has been sending out signals for months that he would consider supporting either Clinton or Obama.

In his brilliant book Murdoch, the untold story of the world's greatest media wizard Neil Chenoweth talks about tabloid culture. He describes how tabloids can support a politician for months or even years and suddenly turn on him. The actual phrase for this is put a weasel up his pants.

Right now McSame is feeling a weasel running up his pants.

So we'll never get the racists/sexists to vote for this year's Dem. But dood, I missed this one. Cliff:

McCain's most recent exams show a range of health issues common in aging: He frequently has precancerous skin lesions removed, and in February had an early stage squamous cell carcinoma, an easily cured skin cancer, removed. He had benign colon growths called polyps taken out during a routine colonoscopy in March.

The SCLM buried that one, I'm sure. You can still do your part, tho. Seriously, being "weak" is a great sin to the minds of the rethug Base. McStain is tired, sick, and weak. Again. Remind your neighbors and friends today: he's not Fit to Lead, and it's time for some new, fresh blood to be in charge.

Update: pass these around today. heh.

While the Obama campaign and its surrogates have been trumpeting the fact that it is bringing in “new voters”, it seems to have forgotten a key component of the “old Democratic coalition” that it disparages.

“Old” voters. Literally.

The Clinton campaign consistently includes Hillary Clinton’s appeal to seniors when it discusses why she is the better choice to face off against John McCain – but the media seldom mentions older voters, choosing instead to concentrate on Clinton’s appeal to “white working class” voters to hype the race angle in the campaign.

The Obama campaign’s use of talking points involving “new voters” and a “new coalition” is sending a message to older voters – that “old” is worth a lot less to them than “new”, that young voters are more important than older voters, and that the “new coalition” means that the concerns of the “old coalition” members are no longer critical to the Party.

And all this is going on when the Republican Party will have a 71 year old as its nominee.

CRANK ECONOMICS

John McCain wants to ease up on state regulations that require health insurers to cover specific conditions. So what would happen to kids like Jake Bernard, who gets speech therapy for his cleft lip only because Florida law requires it?

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Aka Obama’s Sour Apples to Apples, Part Four

Between late February and mid-April, voters in nine states that should/could be “Democratic” in the 2008 Presidential Election were exposed to a considerable amount of negative informative concerning both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The negative information had little impact on how Hillary Clinton was regarded when compared to John McCain. But it has had a major impact on their perception of Barack Obama, and on the perception of the relative merits of Obama and McCain.

Overall, the worst that can be said about Clinton is the negative press attention has resulted in more previously undecided voters in certain demographic categories expressing a preference for McCain rather than for Clinton. But Obama is not merely losing “undecided” voters in most demographic categories because of negative media coverage, a significant percentage of voters who had supported Obama over McCain have switched their preferences.

Via TeddySanFran @ FDL, the question everyone should be asking right up to election day:

So, the question is: will the ad run on Monday?

...

Is John McCain powerless? Is he impotent?

Bwahaha. Yes, these are important questions. I hope that some of our more accessible talking heads *cough* Ezra *cough* will be able to raise them on the air. As in:

Really, what people are asking right now is, why hasn't McCain been able to gain traction with Democrats? Are we looking at an impotent campaign here, you know, one that's never going to get any stronger towards November?

or

Well, McCain's been taking criticism lately, and he hasn't shown that he's really strong enough to deflect any of it... is this the emergence of an impotent candidate?

or

You get the picture. Simple yet devastating. Can we pull it off?

AKA OBAMA'S SOUR 'APPLES TO APPLES', PART THREE: INDEPENDENTS AND MODERATES

In the last six weeks, Barack Obama has been losing support in virtually every key demographic category when matched against John McCain, while Hillary Clinton has gained support. Perhaps most disturbing is Obama’s decline among Independent voters: Between late February and mid-April, in 9 key states for Democrats

· Obama lost an average 4.2% of his support among Independents
· While Obama was losing support among Independents to McCain, McCain was also picking up new support from previously undecided Independent voters, resulting in major decreases in Obama’s margins against McCain among Independents.
· In February, Obama led McCain among Independents in 5 of the 9 states, By mid-April, Obama was leading in only one state – by only 2%.
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Orrin Hatch has written a song for McCain. It's shallow and vapid, you can read the lyrics and barf here. But what's really priceless is Tweety's reaction after playing a snippet on Hardball:

I will be singing it on the pillow tonight.

I bet he will.

Obama may send a thrill up their legs (although that's more about beating Clinton), but at night it's McCain they dream about.

h/t Avedon